Killing a Nightmare
by almahar
Summary: While sleeping in the Great Hall, a Syltherin finds herself needing to calm her younger Gryffindor sibling after a nightmare, by telling a bedtime story much to one professor's displeasure. Takes place in HP:POA. One-Shot.


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any characters related to Harry Potter. This just came to me one night, and I decided to put it down.

* * *

"Davis, wake up." Marissa groaned turning her head slightly as she blinked away the fighting dream from her eyes, trying to focus on the black shadow above her. Finally as she gained focus, her eyes widened slightly at the sight of her Head of House, Professor Snape, glaring in annoyance down at her.

"Yes, Professor?" She asked, running through everything she had done that morning and that night, trying to figure out what she had done to incur his wrath.

"There is a young Gryffindor asking for you, and nothing the professors do will deter him." Her eyes widened slightly in understanding and she slowly clambered up and out of her sleeping bag, before following him. Sirius Black had broken into Hogwarts that night, and as a precaution all the houses were sleeping in the Great Hall, she noticed they were headed toward a small gathering in the Gryffindor area.

When she got close enough to see outlines she realized it was Professors Dumbledore, McGonagall and Lupin trying to reason with a hysterical eleven year old. She sighed in exasperation and the little head turned in her direction, and broke through the circle of teachers, ignoring the dreaded potions master and leapt at Marissa. The older student's eyes widened in shock, and her arms flung out in just enough time to catch the flying youngster. She landed, groaning in pain, hard on her rear end on the hard floor of the hall. The child's head dug into her shoulder, and she tried her best to sit up under the weight of the child and regain some of the dignity her unintentional landing had rid her of.

Ignoring the teachers watching them, she pulled back the head of the child slightly, and commanded, "Look at me, Shawn." The little boy opened his brown eyes to her as tears continued to flow down his face, "Now tell me what this is all about."

"I dreamed Shabakka was after me," Shawn whispered, wrapping her neck in a chokehold. "Andrew told me all about him and how he comes after people with his long fingernails to rip them apart."

The teachers looked at the little boy slightly bewildered, and she sighed making a mental note to throttle their older brother when they returned home for the holidays. She pried at Shawn's fingers, before asking him, "Didn't Andrew tell you the rest of the story?" Shawn shook his head a look of puzzlement on his face. "Well, he forgot to tell me too when we were kids. But I'll tell it to you so that you can get some sleep." She tightened her arms around Shawn, as she began to make up the ending of the story, "After killing his last victim, Shabakka hunted his next victim down, and came upon a young boy, who-." Marissa stopped trying to find someone to make up, and her eyes landed on her Head of House, who was standing nearby arms folded over his chest and an intent expression on his face, while the other teachers watched in curious fascination. "Had dark black eyes and black hair. His name was Snape." She noticed her professor's eyes narrow at his inclusion in her tale, and the other teachers fighting grins. "Shabakka climbed the stairs to Snape's room, his nails scratching out _shabakka, shabakka,_ on the stairs." Shawn whimpered with fear, and she hurried up, "As he reached the door, Shabakka threw it open, and was met with the glare of the eleven year-old Snape, who yelled, 'What do you think you are doing?'

"Shabakka stopped, stunned by the audacity of this little boy to talk back to him, the most feared monster in the world. Then with a savage grin he moved toward the boy, who stood up on his bed and pointed to the door behind the monster, 'You can leave. NOW!' Shabakka ignored the little boy, and continued to move forward. Snape had enough, he gave Shabakka his most evil glare and Shabakka exploded into a thousand pieces!" Shawn gasped in shock, and Marissa heard snorts above her. She looked up through her bangs, and saw McGonagall, Dumbledore, Lupin, and Flitwick fighting grins and hiding their giggles, while Snape's glare at her deepened. "Snape gave a smirk of satisfaction, and laid down to go back to sleep. The end."

Shawn looked at Marissa suspiciously, "Are you sure that's how it ended?"

Marissa leaned forward and asked him in a stage whisper, "If you were a monster would you want to mess with Professor Snape?"

Shawn shook his head in fear at the thought, "Nope."

"Exactly. Shabakka was stupid enough to try to frighten, much less kill, Professor Snape. Now, since Professor Snape killed Shabakka do you think you can get some sleep?" Shawn nodded and got off her lap, she helped him crawl back into bed and tucked the sleeping bag around him, trying to avoid looking at her Head of House.

When she finally looked up it was to see four grinning faces, and one glowering face. "Ten points from Slytherin for adding me into the story," Snape snarled.

"Ten points for adding Professor Snape into the story," came the four voices of the other teachers, their sadistic delight in a student using Professor Snape in a story causing them to ignore the raging storm called Snape that would be directed at them for their actions.

Snape glared at all of them, and the story came back to their minds causing all of them to fight grins, as Snape gestured for Marissa to follow him. When they arrived at her bag, she murmured, "I'm sorry for using you Professor. But seeing as you are the scariest thing in the world to most of Gryffindor I figured it would help him go to sleep if you killed the monster."

"Apology accepted, Miss Davis." As she slipped into the sleeping bag and began get situated, he looked down at her, and said, "A glare that can cause evil monsters to explode?" She nodded, blushing with embarrassment. "I can handle that." Professor Snape murmured to her, before turning around and stalking off, leaving a dumbfounded Slytherin behind him.

* * *

Note: Shabakka, is a "ghost story" my older brother told me when I was six or seven, I remember it perfectly to this day, as it creeped me out, however his ended with a person being killed and Shabakka still hunting people.


End file.
